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Gateway P171XL FX Edition

LCD Size: 17″
Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Pixel Format: 1920 x 1200
CPU: Intel Core2 Extreme Processor X7900 at 2.80GHz
FSB: 800MHz
Cache: 4MB L2 cache
HDD: 400GB 7200rpm Serial ATA hard drive w/ 16MB Cache (2-200GB)
GPU: nVidia GeForce Go 8800GTS with 512MB of GDDR3
Price: ~US$3000

The first question that was on my mind: is the 1920 x 1200 pixel format 17″ LCD panel driven by a LED backlight unit (BLU)? My instincts tell me, “No.” Gateway isn’t mentioning it as a selling point, so my guess is that the LCD is driven by the usual CCFL BLU. I believe Apple was the very first to incorporate a LED BLU into a 17″ notebook PC. And I think the trend toward LED BLUs will continue very strongly in the notebook PC market. There are a few very important advantages of LED BLUs over conventional CCFL BLUs:

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16:9 LCDs

Size: 18.4″, 16.0″
Pixel Format: 1920 x 1080 (18.4″), 1366 x 768 (16.0″)
Colors: 262,144 for both (6-bit)
Brightness: 300 cd/m2 (18.4″), 220 cd/m2 (16.0″)
Color Gamut: 90% NTSC (18.4″), 60% NTSC (16.0″)
Contrast Ratio: 800:1 for both
Response Time: 8ms for both
Viewing Angle: 140/135 for both
Availability: 1H’08

Active White LED Backlight LCD

Size: 15.4″
Pixel Format: 1440 x 900 (same as one in 15.4″ MacBook Pro)
Contrast Ratio: 10,000:1 or more (dynamic contrast ratio)
Viewing Angle: 120/120 (not very good)
Brightness: 300 cd/m2
Color Gamut: 45% NTSC (just average)
Power Consumption: 2.0W or less
Availability: 2H’08

More pictures at Akihabara News

On October 17, 2007, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., (SEC) announced the development of new LCDs for notebook PCs. Two offers a 16:9 aspect ratio, just like a HD TV, and the third features an active white LED backlight that increases picture clarity and reduces power consumption. SEC will unveil these LCDs at FPD International being held in Yokohama, Japan, October 24-26. Mass production is scheduled to commence in 1H’08 for the 16:9 LCDs and in 2H’08 for the white LED backlight LCD. I’m not as excited about the 16:9 LCDs as I am with the “active” LED backlight panel, but it is quite a long ways from now, unfortunately.

The two 16:9 LCDs are 16″ and 18.4″ in size. The color gamut is 60% for the 16″ and 90% for the 18.4″. Quite high considering typical notebooks have about 45% NTSC. Since these two are using CCFL backlights, I will assume that the phosphors have been improved to generate an improved color gamut. The wide color gamut CCFL (WCG-CCFL) can be nice for general movie watching but color matching can be a problem for those serious about color. Contrast ratio for the 16:9 panels is a pretty good 800:1 but the response time isn’t going to be fast enough (8ms) to replace your TV for video viewing. The number of colors (262,144) tell you that these are 6-bit panels. It seems the 18.4″ will have a pixel format of 1920 x 1080 (Full HD, 1080p). I have a 17″ Dell with a pixel format of 1920 x 1200 and it is pretty large. I wonder if consumers will buy into a 18.4″ notebook PC. It might be just a tad bit too big in my opinion. Of course, if it was slimmer, lighter, sexier and lasted many more hours, I wouldn’t mind the extra 1.4″. But please don’t put the keyboard to the left since I have no use for a numeric keypad. By the way, the 1366 x 768 pixel format for a large 16.0″ LCD sounds a bit on the low side.

SEC’s 15.4″ active white LED backlight LCD sounds pretty cool as the company states that it will consume 40% less power than a typical LED backlight. That would mean that it will consume even less than a typical CCFL backlight. I certainly appreciate the improvements in backlight technology as it seems the battery industry is not going to be providing much useful advances soon with batteries exploding and even battery factories catching on fire. The active part of the LED backlight involves illuminated areas of the display with varying degrees of brightness. To make dark areas dark the LEDs for that portion of the display are turned off. When dark becomes more dark and bright areas become more bright, contrast ratio is improved and SEC states that the contrast ratio is 10,000:1. Wow. But other features are just normal: viewing angle (120/120), color gamut (45%) and brightness (300 cd/m2).

Source: Akihabara News

Samsung 940BW

Size: 19″
Aspect Ratio: 16:10
Pixel Format: 1440 x 900
Brightness: 300 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio: 500:1
Response Time: 4ms
Viewing Angle: 160/160
Input: VGA, DVI-D
Availability: June 28, 2007 in India

Samsung introduced its 940 BW 19″ wide LCD monitor in India on June 28. The monitor has a 1440 x 900 resolution and has a 16:10 aspect ratio. Although ChannelTimes is indicating that two whole A4 size pages can be viewed side by side, that is not true. A4 size pages are even longer than letter sizes and not even 1680 x 1050 resolutions can handle two letter sized pages at 100% in Microsoft Word. You need at least a 1920 x 1200 resolution display to do that, barely.

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